COLLARING A REPORTER.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7718, 15 April 1887, Page 3

COLLARING A REPORTER.

Asharp encounter, the circumstances of which are almost unprecedented, occurred in England recently between a newspaper reporter and the members of a Board in tlie county of Montgomery, called the "Newtown and Llanlhvchaiarn Local Board." The reporter, whose name was Thompson, represented the Shropshire Pout, in which paper had appeared certain reflections upon the Board, to which the members took exception. The matter was brought up at a Board meeting; and an exciting discu^on ensued. MiThompson was present in his official capacity, and insisted on taking part in the proceedings. He objected to his paper being vilified, and claimed the right of reply. A motion was then made that the representative of the offending paper be excluded from the Board's meetings for three months. In the course of a discussion on this motion, one member of the Board said : " There was an old legend with regard to trades, that when n member of a particular trade died his soul went into a donkey. (Laughter.) He did not know what m'ght be the particular legend with regard to reporters—(laughter)—but he was inclined to think, did they migrate into monkeys? because really they seemed awfully mischievous, and some were never satisfied unless they were making mischief between individuals. He was very much inclined to believe in that doctrine, and that what they heard that night was the result." Eventually the motion was carried, and the reporter went out on the arm of a policeman, bowing ironically to the chairman as he did so. Tho statement in the Shropshire Post most complained ~at was as folio .vs :—" This is the unkindest cut of all. • To be deprived of the only pleasure we have in life— the only thing really that life is worth living for in Newtown, that of being privileged to attend the amateur and unrehearsed pantomimes of the Local Board— would, wo tliink, be fatal to us."